Lariska (Canto)
Lariska (Pron. lah-'ris'-kah) is the Dark Hunters' official second-in-command and the Shadowed One's lieutenant, having been formally promoted following the Great Reformation. History Early History Little is known about Lariska as well as her species as a whole. The only concrete mention of her origins describe it as a harsh place to live where each day was a battle for survival. Two main theories have spawned from this piece of information. The first comes from the Order of Mata Nui, which holds several second-hand records on Lariska and they contend that her homeland was indeed a near-inhospitable island. This description narrows down the potential list to Artidax, an island as inhospitable as they come, or one of the other unexplored Southern Island Chains. Both theories are improbable as Axonn has no recollection of ever meeting beings like Lariska during his conquest of the Southern Islands. Furthermore, during the exodus onto Bara Magna, none of the travelers saw any trace of any members of her kind currently living on one of the islands. Despite these two eyewitness accounts, most historians, archivists, and chroniclers continue to attribute the one known fact about Lariska to her unnamed homeland. The second theory comes from within the Dark Hunters' own ranks. The Recorder, in his twisted genius, instead attributes the one piece of concrete information not to Lariska's homeland, but to her early experiences. If taken literally, the one place where every day is a battle for survival are the gladiatorial coliseums on Stelt. This would explain why there have are no traces of Lariska's brethren anywhere in the Matoran Universe: they have all been lured or abducted to fight as slaves. According to the Recorder's close observations of Lariska, she was likely born as a gladiator, rather than being one of those who were originally kidnapped. This would explain Lariska's incredible natural aptitude for combat and phenomenal agility as she had to develop these skills from a very young age. How she escaped from Stelt is not clear though there are two likely scenarios: She did so under her own power, or she was discarded and left for dead, only for someone to save her. Regardless, despite the Recorder's many musings, the Order has deemed him to be unfit of mind. He is not to be trusted. Dark Hunters Lariska was recruited by the Shadowed One about 10,000 years ago. Unlike most Dark Hunters, the reason and circumstances of her recruitment is kept under strict lock and key by the Shadowed One. The Leader of the Dark Hunters refuses to divulge such information as his life depends on which of the two likely explanations is true. If it happened to be the latter, this would undoubtedly be considered a moment of weakness and mercy, a more than ample enough excuse for Darkness to drive a blade through his chest. As a Dark Hunter, she has been sent on numerous missions and also acted as a trainer to several new recruits, Hakann being the most prominent. She was his first challenger during his initiation and although the Skakdi managed to down her with a strong mental blast, she immediately got up and had a knife to his throat. Hakann's first lesson as a Dark Hunter was that it was always a fight to the death. She was also responsible for the assassination of a Toa of Gravity at some point during her Dark Hunter career. Furthermore, it has long been suspected she was the one responsible for stealing the Staff of Artahka from the Onu-Metru Archives. However, Lariska has had her fair share of failures. One mission, of which the details have gone undocumented, resulted in her cutting her own arm off in atonement for her mistake. Under normal circumstances, only a digit of a finger is removed. Therefore, whatever her mistake was, it was clearly egregious. The removed arm was replaced with a fully mechanical one. Her actions in the Toa-Dark Hunter War were partially to blame for the Dark Hunter defeat. While fighting in Ga-Metru, she and Hakann saw a lone Toa of Air, Nidhiki. Lariska convinced him to join the Dark Hunter ranks. Nidhiki quickly supplied enough information for Lariska to plan a secret attack on the Toa. Unbeknownst to her, Lhikan had asked all the Toa of Plantlife in the army to plant a docile variant of South Continental Grass all over Metru Nui. Instead of wrapping and dragging intruders to their demise, they merely relayed information back to Lhikan. Bercilak just so happened to plant some in Ga-Matru on his way to Onu-Metru. As such, having received extrasensory stimuli from the grass, Lhikan tailed Nidhiki and discovered his betrayal. Lariska was punished by the Shadowed One when she returned to Odina following the defeat. Federation of Fear During the events leading up to the Order-Brotherhood war, the Order of Mata Nui rounded up a group of expendable prisoners under the squad name "Federation of Fear" to undertake the suicide mission of raiding Artidax and freeing Makuta Miserix. They also hired Lariska as insurance, in case any of the prisoners tried to flee. While the actions of the Federation are well-documented in Order records, it was never known exactly why the Dark Hunters agreed to send one of their finest on such a hazardous assignment, especially as the only payment they received were the set of master-crafted protosteel daggers Lariska currently uses. If the mission simply required someone to follow the Federation and make sure no one escaped, Eliminator, Tracker, and many others would have sufficed. The Order is pragmatic to a fault: So long as they had their Dark Hunter, they did not question why a high-ranking member was sent. The Recorder has speculated that knowledge and security were the driving factors. The Shadowed One now knew the full extent of the Order's influence and their ambitions. But, most importantly, it was a quid pro quo. He sent Lariska to ensure the success of the Order's scheme, but, would in turn ensure a ceasefire, if not a partnership, between his organization and the Order. Teridax's Reign Following Miserix's release, Lariska returned to Odina where Ancient eventually convinced the Shadowed One to not settle for a ceasefire but an alliance. While the rest of the Dark Hunters sailed to form a blockade around Xia, Lariska had separate orders to disrupt supply chains and to sow disruption and confusion in key areas, most notably Nynrah where the Brotherhood had a strong presence that the Order struggled to shift. She further spread misinformation to delay the Brotherhood's planned Siege of Metru Nui to allow for the island's fortifications to be built. She did not participate in the siege itself, however, and returned to the Xia blockade after her espionage was complete. While the Battle of Mara Magna raged outside the Great Spirit Robot, none of the Dark Hunters participated in the fight. During these chaotic times, Lariska was responsible for gathering as many Hunters as possible, but most ended up missing. Those she did find were dead with the sole exception of the Recorder. After Teridax was defeated, she, the Shadowed One, and the Recorder set out onto the reformed world to rebuild. Spherus Magna Following her escape from the ruined robot, she followed the Shadowed One in finding a suitable location for New Odina. While the rest of the Matoran Universe populace waited at the Mega-village for the Great Navigation to finish, the leader of the Dark Hunters wasted no time and forged his own path. With no allies and clout, this was the Shadowed One's greatest moment of weakness. Despite this, Lariska did not attempt to take his life and usurp him. At last, the pair, along with one other Dark Hunter that they ran into along their journey, settled in a heavily wooded area several kio inland of a fertile peninsula. At this point, the Shadowed One promoted her to be his official second-in-command. She was to be Ancient's replacement, someone who the Shadowed One begrudgingly acknowledged he had to put his trust in when his Organization was at its lowest point as he knew Lariska would not betray him for the forseeable future. As time went on and civilizations began to spring up all around Spherus Magna, Lariska's prime directive was to rebuild the Dark Hunter ranks, even if subterfuge or brute force were necessary. Over a span of about 25 years, she managed to find a few wandering members of the old Dark Hunters and recruited a sizable number of Skrall, Bone Hunters, and a few new fully initiated members for the Dark Hunter cause. Her prime directive complete, the Shadowed One's current mission for her was to continually spy on Adytum and supply the city's burgeoning organized crime scene with intel and muscle in exchange for payment. Abilities and Equipment *'Expert hand-to-hand combatant:' Lariska is a natural fighter and a master of close-quarters combat. Fighting seems to just come easily for her and she never needed any sort of formal training after being recruited by the Shadowed One. If the Recorder's theory is to be believed, then her fighting skills could have been developed during her childhood years in the bloody Steltian arenas. *'Incredible athleticism and agility:' Lariska is able to perform acrobatic feats equal to or even sometimes surpassing those of a Calix user. Again, this is another one of her latent talents that did not require any training to develop. *'Heightened senses:' Acute hearing and eyesight allow Lariska to be a deadly hunter, capable of tracking a target through the harshest of conditions and over long distances. *'''Master-crafted set of protosteel throwing daggers: '''Forged by the Order and was part of the weapons cache delivered by Botar and Trinuma. As she did not take a weapon from the cache, she was given this set of daggers as payment after the mission. Protosteel weapons are very hard to come by outside of the Order, Brotherhood, and Toa so these knives are extremely valuable. Other than the material's well-known hardness and craftsmanship of the weapons themselves, the daggers do not possess any other outstanding qualities. Personality Lariska is cynical, but loyal to the Dark Hunter organization. Ruthless, but not reckless. Near-emotionless, but still harbours buried feelings of hopelessness and kinship. Lariska is full of contradictions, something that has not gone unnoticed by the Recorder. He surmises that Lariska is continually struggling with her complicated relationship with The Shadowed One and her fellow Dark Hunters, the latter becoming a far greater concern of hers with the new command structure the organization currently uses. Her mind, long since muted to emotions, attempts to explain her gradual change in behaviour with uncompromising logic but the Recorder knows there may come a day when Lariska changes, perhaps for the better. On the surface, Lariska is a calculating, cold individual who carries out her orders with spine-chilling efficiency. She is not often one for too many words and when she does speak during a mission, she will get straight to the point. Lariska has never hesitated to carry out an order, no matter how distasteful it may be. While Lariska kills without a second thought, she saves the bloodshed for missions. She does not kill for pleasure, though this is far more likely to be an absence of emotion rather than a murderer's code of honour. Though she is self-serving and distrustful, she places great faith in the Shadowed One and is utterly loyal to the Dark Hunter cause despite his harsh treatment of her. It is noteworthy that she is given significantly more leeway compared to his other underlings. This is even more pronounced with the new iteration of Dark Hunters following the Great Reformation as Lariska has become the official second-in-command and no longer acts as the hired muscle. The organization is much smaller and it feels more like a family than an organization. Lariska was once feared amongst the Dark Hunter ranks, her skill and ruthlessness more than enough to ward away challengers. Following the restructuring of the Dark Hunters after the Reformation, she now knows each of her fellow Hunters by name and regularly works in close contact with them. In the past, she was indifferent when a fellow Dark Hunter died in the field. She now secretly keeps a watchful eye on the rest of the Hunters, making sure no harm befalls them. She rationalizes this behaviour by reasoning that a loss when there are so few Hunters would be a huge blow to the organization. Furthermore, she no longer uses fear and threats to command, her logic being it is not a practical course of action when her current allies all consider themselves as equals working towards a common goal. Lastly, the Recorder has documented that Lariska has stated being a Dark Hunter is all she knows how to do. She does not know any regret and if she has a do-over, she still would have chosen to be a Dark Hunter. The Recorder's theories of Lariska end here, with a final speculation that she feels as though her lot in life had been drawn the second she was born into gladiatorial combat and being a Hunter was the only way she could find her way in this world. Known Moveset Trivia *The creation was inspired by various high-level female MOCs. This MOC was created in response to the challenge the aforementioned MOCs presented. *The explanation for Lariska cutting off an entire limb as opposed to a finger comes from a traditional Japanese practice called yubitsume, now mostly performed by the yakuza. When one wronged their superior, they would cut off a digit of their own little finger. This resulted in a weaker grip on their sword. *As with all of the Canto Universe Dark Hunters, this character's theme song, "Vice", was composed by Creo. *This creation was submitted to the 2019 Dark Hunter MOC contest. Gallery Category:Dark Hunters